Was watching the Daniel Grant video today and saw a trick that looked like a hard flip. I come from a skate background and while I haven't seen too many wake skate videos I was wondering if anyone has landed a legit "hard flip".

Thanks Ryan! That was what I was looking for. Hard flips are such a clean trick when done right. If you look at the vid at 50 seconds and then 58 seconds (sorry to post a how to vid it was the only good one I could find) the hard flip looks so smooth and clean. When you see it wakeskating it looks so rushed and sloppy. I can only imagine how much harder it is to do on a wakeskate so trust me I'm not bashing I would just love to see one of these guys perfect it and maybe even do it a little more "between the legs" not just throw it around like it's rushed. Pretty legit though and much respect to all these wakeskaters out there pushing the sport and limitations

I'm sure someone will start sticking them clean as time goes on. I thought for sure 360flips were going to always be sketchy looking on a wakeskate and boy was I wrong. I think everything is a little more difficult on wakeskate when comparing to a standard skate board. The speed your traveling, the weight of the board, and the amount of wind the bigger boards catch is what makes me feel that way. I bet Reed Hansen can stick one clean but I haven't seen many videos of him riding recently. It's a shame too, he's the one skater I like to follow the most.

I'm completely agree. Wakesakters have a much higher level of difficulty due to wind/board/etc and as far as the 360 flips, I thought the same thing too but these guys have definitely dialed them in and have the similar skate style look like a 360 flip should have. I just love the clean slow rotations and that said completely understand how hard that must be when you factor in 20mph winds haha and a board that weighs 4 times what a skateboard weighs

Doesn't mean it's not difficult on a regular skateboard either... Sure we fall on water which can hurt, but those guys fall on concrete. Now that I think about it, maybe some moves are easier on a wakeskate? Like a shoveit, we have a much wider landing area than a normal skateboard does. Also if our board doesn't make the complete rotation, we can still ride it out. I've never thought about it that way before. Look at me philosophising there (I know that 's not a word... it just felt right).

hahaha danng philosopher! Just kidding! Ya man I actually grew up skating and hard flips were one of my favorite tricks to do. I guess that's what sparked my interest in posting this thread. As far as difficulty, I don't want to take anything away from either sport but I do feel the speed and wind factor play a huge roll. I know it's concrete but honestly most flat ground flip tricks have a pretty low risk factor. Mostly just your shins get busted up and hope to god you don't get credit carded on a hard flip or anything between the legs haha. I've seen some nasty stuff on wakeskates too. My buddy rides a lot and while clearing the wake last summer the board got out in front of him, went in nose first, and shot back out hitting him in the forehead. He had a knot the size of a baseball. The summer before that my other friends was trying to learn to barefoot and started out sitting on a wakeskate. Once the boat reached speed she stood up, fell, and when she came back up the wakeskate was still flying across the water and split open the back of her head. Pretty rough! Really do feel this is a great topic though. Wakeskating and skateboarding are so similar in so many ways and yet SO different.

That was dope!! A few of them were super clean and floaty like I was talking about, but see how at 38 seconds the hard flip doesn't even look like a hard flip and that's what I feel like I keep seeing with most of them (Nicks first couple were spot on and by far the cleanest I've seen on here yet) it almost looks like an inward 180 kickflip, not really a between the legs hard flip. Awesome video man thank you.

I know there isn't an inward kickflip, that was the only word I could think of to describe what I feel I saw. If you look at a skateboarding hard flip, it's between the legs. I understand this is a style thing and what he did may be a hard flip by the "book". The point I was trying to make is that a traditional skateboarding hard flip is more between the legs as seen in the video I posted above and looks much better than a rushed front shuv kick flip.

Same goes for frontside flips. The best ones are when the board flips more between the legs. It's slow, floaty, and tons of style. Unlike when do them and the board is more under or out in front of them. You are right it's a style thing, my whole point is that I want to see more floaty, smooth, between the legs hard flips. Don't get me wrong either guys I'm no dictator of the sport, I don't even wakeskate because I'd honestly just rather ride my wakeboard and street skate, but having literally 15 years of street skating history, I would love to see a wakeskater mimic hard flips and frontside flips more like street skateboarding with the same between the legs style. Just think it would be pretty legit